XmlPullParser and AttributeSet

Question

I would like to create a TextView multiple times in different activities programmaticly. Instead of setting the attributes each time, I was thinking I may be able to save the attributes in an xml file and just use it each time I add a TextView to an activity. From what I read I think using the following code would work.

XmlPullParser parser = resources.getXml();
AttributeSet attributes = Xml.asAttributeSet(parser);
TextView textView = new TextView(this, attributes);

My qustion is this a valid way to do it? and my second question is where and how should the xml attributes be saved? in Layout folder or values?? does it make a difference?

Thank you

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:06

2

You can use polymorphism instead, for example you can create many subclasses of TextView class and instantiate appropriate subclass where you want:

public class CustomTextView extends TextView {

    public CustomTextView(Context context) {
        super(context);
        init();
    }

    public CustomTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
        init();
    }

    public CustomTextView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle)  {
        super(context, attrs, defStyle);
        init();
    }

    private void init() {
        // your custom attributes
        // for example
        setTextColor(Color.BLACK);
    }
}

and instantiate it in this this way:

TextView textView = new CustomTextView(this);

Or you can inflate Views from xml layout - take a look

edited May 23 '17 at 12:06

Community

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answered Sep 25 '15 at 14:44

Vasyl Glodan

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What does 'init();' do?? – Ammar Samater Sep 25 '15 at 15:12
it sets attributes to your `TextView`, as you see `CustomTextView` extends `TextView` class, so `setTextColor(Color.BLACK);` (`this.setTextColor(Color.BLACK);`) will set black text color to `CustomTextView`. Maybe better name for this class (in this example) would be `BlackTextView`. – Vasyl Glodan Sep 25 '15 at 15:16
oh I see, that was a dump question – Ammar Samater Sep 25 '15 at 15:17
Actually I would recommend you to use `LayoutInflater` to achieve your goal, I mentioned it in the last line of my answer. – Vasyl Glodan Sep 25 '15 at 15:21

XmlPullParser and AttributeSet

1 Answers1